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Sara Kopelman | The Smart Family Institute

Sara Kopelman

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Sara
Kopelman
Research Topic: The Time of the GIF:The Cultural Significance of Digital Looped Video
Advisor: Prof. Paul Frosh

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a member of “The Evolution of Attention in Modern and Contemporary Culture,” an interdisciplinary research group at the Mandel Scholion Research Center (2021-2024), and a research associate in the project “The Retention of Media: The Cultural Memory of Photography in the Smartphone Era,” Israeli Science Foundation (2021-2024).

My doctoral dissertation deals with the social and cultural significance of the photographed GIF due to its unique temporality and attention structure. My M.A. thesis focused on iconic photographs of victory, visual rhetoric, and collective memory.

I hold a B.A. in Photographic Communications from Hadassah Academic College and an M.A. from the Interdisciplinary Program in the Arts from Tel Aviv University. I also teach in the Department of Photographic Communications at Hadassah Academic College and am a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University. I am also a photographer and curator.

 

Research Interests:

  • Visual Culture
  • Photography
  • Memory
  • Social Media
  • Visual Attention

 

Selected Publications:

  • Adams, T., & Kopelman, S. (2023). Picturing Lockdown in the UK: Memorializing an Ongoing Crisis. In The COVID-19 Pandemic and Memory: Remembrance, commemoration, and archiving in crisis (pp. 43-63). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Doi: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34597-5_3
  • Kopelman, S., & Frosh, P. (2023). The “algorithmic as if”: Computational resurrection and the animation of the dead in Deep Nostalgia. Doi:  10.1177/14614448231210268. 
  • Adams, T., & Kopelman, S. (2021). Remembering COVID-19: memory, crisis, and social media. Media, Culture & Society. Doi: 01634437211048377.
  • Kopelman, S., & Frosh, P. (2020). Reliving Memories (over and over again): GIFs, moving photography and the smartphone album. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research. Doi: 10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11253 
 

Awards and Prizes:

  • 2021-2024: Doctoral student in interdisciplinary research group, “The Evolution of Attention in Modern and Contemporary Culture”, Mandel Scholion Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • 2021-2024: Research associate, “The Retention of Media: The Cultural Memory of Photography in the Smartphone Era,” ISF Funded Research, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • 2020-2022: Doctoral Writing Program Coordinator Grant, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • 2020: Scholarship for doctoral students, the Department of Communication and Journalism, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
  • 2015-2016: Dean’s award for outstanding students, Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University.
  • 2010-2012: Dean’s award for excellence, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem.
  • 2010: The Samuel Engelstien’s Award for Excellence, Department of Photographic Communications, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem.